Ask the Best and Brightest: What Was The Worst Decision You Made When Buying a Car?

1999 Saturn SL. I bought it new and still have it. The thing makes a toyota camry look exciting, but after 10 years the only non-maintenance expenditure has been a $20 sensor, while the plastic body work makes it look new (if you ignore the outdated design). A neighbour even backed into it with his Jeep, but the stupid thing only suffered a slight dent in the (metal) gas door. I continue to wait for a reason to sell it, but in the meanwhile, I can not justify spending any money on a new vehicle for my daily 8 minute commute to work.

Deanst: - Exactly. Short commutes don't require $25K cars... I'm in the same boat. My biggest regret? My '99 CR-V. Got a good fair deal on it new. Made payments on it for 5 years. At that point in our early married life it cost the moon. I regretted the purchase on the second payment but we decided to suck it up and pay all of them as a lesson to ourselves. My biggest vehicle satisfaction: That same CR-V. Now 172K miles later we are so elated with that CR-V. I have done all of the maintenance myself. Timing belts, front pads twice, and a radiator. Otherwise it is still solid and trouble free. Still on the original clutch! A great purchase. Does it have a some design shortcomings? Yes. I wish it had a sixth gear. I wish it was a little quieter on the interstate. Engine really revs. Otherwise they built it like I would have. So we have run the gamut of emotions about it. Our other cars - all of them have been pretty good relative to their purchase price. I've bought and sold alot of cars over the past twenty years. Something like 30 or so. The ones that had the most trouble were usually the cheapest ones and the ones with the most owners who each and every one seemed to neglect the car before passing it off to the next owner. Perhaps that is why they sold it in the first place - letting a few problems build up and then selling it off. After a few months of occasional repairs I generally have a good car free of troubles at minimum cost. My current VW has been cheap but not trouble free. I would not recommend it to anyone b/c most folks I know rely on a mechanic. Never the same problem twice, usually something manufactured from cheap materials causing it to wear out, leak, or rust. My shifter is a good example. $15 parts, an hour - no big deal. A mechanic would cost much more. Little nylon bushings wore out. My Honda has a cable shifter than is much, much tighter and never required any attention. The only true challenge has been the rare vehicle that I bought when I was pretty young that had rust issues. These cars were generally hopeless if the rust couldn't be stopped. Thinking about trying a domestic vehicle next time. You guys (and the folks around me here) who have horror stories worry me. Of course my VW is supposed to be a POS but life hasn't been too bad with it but unlike the Vauxhall mentioned above I can easily get parts.

In 1989, I had $700 to my name and spent all of them on a '79 Pinto. If I'd have had any change left over, I probably would have picked up a pair of "Bad Idea" jeans.

Buying a Buick. It came apart so often that warranty was denied 2 years in. They should've just given my wife another car. Instead, chose to lose another customer and that customer's friends and family forever.